It was a defining and uplifting moment at the Summer Games -- women competing at Ancient Olympia for the first time in history. Then along came a modern-day scourge -- drugs.

The Russian shot-putter who won the women's gold medal last week tested positive for steroids, international and Russian officials said Sunday. In the latest doping scandal to hit the games, Irina Korzhanenko could be stripped of the gold and sent home in disgrace.

"Nobody can believe that this is actually happening," Russian Olympic Committee spokesman Gennady Shvets said.

News of Korzhanenko's positive test came on the same day a Greek weightlifter, Leonidas Sampanis, became the first athlete to be stripped of a medal for a doping offense. Sampanis lost his bronze medal in the 62-kilogram (137-pound) category after testing positive for twice the allowed amount of testosterone.

So far, nine weightlifters have failed drug tests. A Kenyan boxer was also sent home for using drugs. With a week left in the games, including track and field events, more positives are likely.

Eat, drink and catch crickets

Plato never ate a potato. Socrates drank his fatal cup of hemlock without ever tasting spaghetti. And his peers went without tomatoes, sugar, oranges and those modern Greek essentials, coffee and cigarettes.

The ancients, however, didn't go without sipping diluted wine all day and lounging on a comfortable sofa after a marathon session of eating and imbibing.

Contemporary gourmands can get a taste of the ancients' diet at Ancient Tastes, an Athens restaurant that is reviving menus from thousands of years ago when the Parthenon was still new and fast food meant chasing a pig.

With harp and recorder music softly playing, servers in traditional tunics ferry plates of goat meat casseroles with chickpea puree, sweet-and-sour shrimp, salads with arugula, raisins and pomegranate, and sweets made with dried fruits, yogurt and honey.

For athletes, the sporting diet was nuts, yogurt, fruits and soft cheeses. After the fifth century B.C., meat, preferably goat because of its lack of fat, was added to the training table.

Dimitris Kechris, the restaurant's head chef, said some dishes never had a chance to make the menu, like the dressing made from fermented fish and garnished with rose petals.

"Some dishes were a bit extreme -- the ancient Greeks ate crickets -- and we couldn't imagine eating them now. So we chose dishes which appeal to people today."

Eating like a champ

Rulon Gardner, an Olympic champion wrestler, is on a mission: eating lunch. He grabs a tray and hears the voice of Larry Buendorf.

When Buendorf talks, Gardner listens. So does everyone else. On Sept. 5, 1975, Buendorf wrestled a pistol from the hands of "Squeaky" Fromme, who sought to assassinate President Gerald Ford. Buendorf, then a Secret Service agent, saved Ford's life.

Now, Buendorf serves as chief security officer for the U.S. Olympic Committee, and his concern at this moment is the threat to Gardner waistline.

"Gardner," Buendorf says in his flat voice, "is that your new diet?"

Both men laugh. Piled on Gardner's plate is swordfish, beef stroganoff, salad and bottles of Sprite, Coke and tomato juice.

"Everyone says, 'Win a medal. Win a medal,' " Gardner says between bites of his salad. "They've lost focus on what's important. I came here for personal satisfaction. I want to walk off the mat and know I've done my best."

If he gets a few nice lunches along the way, that's nice too.

She's seen her share of losing

Lori Harrigan, a three-time member of the U.S. Olympic softball team, works as a security supervisor at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. She's seen people lose millions of dollars, and she's rubbed shoulders with the rich and famous.

She coordinated security for the movie "Ocean's Eleven," though she doesn't count the George Clooney film among her favorite Las Vegas movies.

"Because obviously,'' she said, "we don't want to get robbed.''

Though she seldom gambles, Harrigan admits to hitting a couple of $4,000 jackpots on the slots. And she is eager to dispel myths about the town.

"Everybody thinks because I live there that I have to be a stripper, blackjack dealer or that I party all the time,'' she said. "Outside of the strip, I live in a normal neighborhood. The only thing really different is that we have slot machines in our 7-Elevens.''

Gatlin's coach sent syringe

Trevor Graham, coach of new Olympic 100-meter champion Justin Gatlin, admitted publicly Sunday he is the coach who sent the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency a syringe containing THG that triggered the BALCO scandal.

"I was just a coach doing the right thing. No regrets," Graham said.

The former coach of triple Olympic gold medalist Marion Jones and world 100-meter record-holder Tim Montgomery, Graham sent USADA the syringe of the previously unknown drug last June, touching off a scandal that has engulfed sports ranging from track and field to the NFL to Major League Baseball.

Kelli White, the 2003 world 100-meter champion, was banned after admitting using drugs obtained from the Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative. USADA is also seeking a ban against Montgomery and five other American track athletes, based on information obtained in a federal investigation of the lab.

-- Daily News wire reports